


Think Tank

by asododsteel



Category: Worm - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 20:19:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10046771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asododsteel/pseuds/asododsteel
Summary: I heard a knock at the door.“Strange”, I thought. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and Dad said he was working late. I walked over and opened the door.“Hello.” said Alexandria, “May I come in?”





	

“In other news, it has been reported by PRT officials that the supervillain Teacher has broken out of the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, the first escape in the prison’s history. Teacher was imprisoned for numerous crimes including the assassination of Vice President-”

I switched off the TV. The last thing I needed right now was more bad news. It had been my first day back since the locker incident, and I’d hoped that perhaps the trio would give me a break. Fat chance. If anything, they had been even more vicious, secure in the knowledge that they could get away with hospitalizing me scot-free. I sighed and rose to make myself a cup of tea, when I heard a knock at the door. 

“Strange”, I thought. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and Dad said he was working late. I walked over and opened the door.

“Hello.” said Alexandria, “May I come in?”

There was something wrong here, but I couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t the hello, that was a fairly standard greeting. And asking to come in? That’s just common courtesy. Oh wait, I got it. WHY WAS FUCKING ALEXANDRIA AT MY DOOR?

“Uh...” I replied, too shocked to form coherent sentences.

She smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

I nodded dully and moved aside for her. She walked into the living room, sweeping through it with a single glance. 

“Is it okay if I sit down?” she asked, gesturing to the couch.

“Y-yes, of course Ms. Alexandria Sir, er Ma’am.”

She took a seat, then beckoned me to join her. I sat down across from her, unsure of what else to do. She didn’t say anything at first, seeming content to sit there and study me. What she was looking for, I had no clue. I finally worked up the nerve to say something.

“If you don’t mind my asking, Ma’am-”

She held up a hand. “Please, call me Alexandria.”

I nodded. “Right. Um, if you don’t mind my asking, Alexandria... Why are you here?”

“Perfectly valid question. To be straightforward, I’ve come to ask for your help. You recently gained powers, yes?”

“I... What? How did you-”

“A private organization I’ve been working with has been keeping tabs on recent trigger events, that is to say, the incidents which give people powers. You don’t have to worry about your secret identity. Like I said, they’re a private group. Neither the PRT nor the Protectorate are aware of your existence.”

I supposed that was a good thing. I’d hate for my cover to be blown before I even started my super hero career. Assuming that was something I chose to go into. I was still somewhat on the fence about it.

“But what do you need my help with?”

“This group I mentioned has recently been working on a certain project, and we believe your ability is the key to its completion.”

My ability? I controlled bugs, how important could it be?

“What kind of project is it?”

“I’m afraid I can’t divulge any details unless you agree to take part. That being said, I can assure you it is one vital to global security. I am not exaggerating when I say that it will have a great impact on the future of humanity.”

“Wow, that’s uh... That’s a lot to take in. I’d love to help but, I don’t know how much use I’d be. My power isn’t exactly a strong one, and what you’re asking sounds like a big responsibility.”

“That’s fair. You are free to refuse. Of course, if you were to help, I’d consider it a great personal favor.” She smiled again, and I was instantly reminded of how strange a situation this was. My childhood idol was _here_ asking _me_ for a favor. I supposed that if I was going to be a hero, this would be a good way to start.

“Alright.” I said, “I’ll help.”

“Excellent.” she said, standing up. “Door me.” Just then, a strange portal opened up, showing an empty hallway with white walls and a white floor. 

She turned in my direction. “If you’d come with me.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, tentatively approaching the portal.

“To meet some friends.” she replied.

 

She walked me through the white hallway and around a corner to a pair of large double doors. I could hear the sound of talking behind them.

“Just a heads up,” said Alexandria, “You weren’t the only one we requested help from. Try not to be alarmed.”

She opened the doors, and revealed a large room filled with the biggest gathering of capes I’d ever seen. People of all shapes in sizes were moving around and talking, some in costume, some not. A vaguely familiar man with knives on his belt was shaking hands and laughing with a blonde man with glasses and a button-down shirt. There was a large group of people in white uniforms huddled together in a corner. A short man in a metal mask stood alone, scowling at all the disorderly mingling.

I followed Alexandria as she approached a dark-skinned woman in a lab coat. She looked up at us. “Alexandria, you’ve returned. And I see you’ve brought Miss Hebert.” She offered me her hand. “Thank you for coming, Taylor. My name is Doctor Mother. I’m the one overseeing this project. With your assistance, we may finally be able to bring it to completion.”

“Glad to be of help.” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Is this the girl we’ve been waiting for?” came a voice from behind me. I turned to see a fat, balding man in dress shirt and khakis.

“Correct.” replied Doctor Mother, “According to Contessa, her power is essential to the process.”

“And what power would that be?” the man asked, staring at me intently.

“I can control bugs.” I said, sheepishly. “I’d demonstrate but, there don’t seem to be a lot of bugs around here. Kind of weird, really.” I gave an awkward chuckle, woefully out of place in this room full of actual superheroes.

The man turned to Alexandria. “Are you sure you got the right person?”

“We believe her power comes with a secondary ability which allows her to process large quantities of information and split her attention to a near infinite scale. Given the task at hand, I’d say she is quite essential, Teacher.”

Wait, Teacher?

“You’re the one from the news.” I said, “The villain who broke out of the Birdcage.”

“Villain? Yes, I suppose some would see me that way, but I prefer not to stick to labels. As for broke out, well... I prefer to think of it as being pardoned; in exchange for my much needed services in this endeavor.”

“What?”

Alexandria stepped in. “Taylor, you’re familiar with S-Class protocols, correct? Where capes from both sides of the law put aside their differences to combat large scale threats, such as Endbringers? This is a similar situation.”

“What do you mean similar? What’s going on here?”

“Everything will be explained shortly.” Doctor Mother said, “For now, feel free to relax and socialize whilst we get everything in order.” She waved me off. I wanted to protest, but this scenario was so out of left field I had no idea what to say. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. Looking up, I saw a young woman in a dark suit and hat.

“If you want,” she said, “there are other capes from Brockton Bay here.” She pointed over to a pair of girls and a man in a black skintight bodysuit.

“Uh, thanks.” I said. I supposed I had nothing better to do. I walked over to the group in what I hoped was a casual manner. 

“Hi.” I said, “I hear you guys are from Brockton Bay too?”

“You heard right.” replied a girl about my age in a black and purple suit. “The name’s Tattletale. Don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

“Yeah, I’m new. Just got my powers a little while ago actually.”

“No kidding? How’d you get roped into this?”

“I don’t know. Alexandria just appeared at my house and brought me here. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around it really. I don’t suppose you know what’s going on, do you?”

“But, of course!” she grinned, “I know everything.”

“Really?”

“No, but it’s what I like people to believe. Though, given this crowd, I doubt I’d be able to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.”

“What do you mean?”

She gave me a peculiar look. “Haven’t you noticed something similar about all the capes here? Something they all have in common?”

“Not really. To tell the truth, I don’t recognize a single person here. Except...” I squinted, “Is that Eidolon!? What the fuck?”

“Yeah, he’s kind of cheating; being a Trump and all. But since he can have whatever three Thinker powers he wants, I guess he has a place here.”

“Thinker? Is that what’s going on here? You’re all a bunch of brain capes?”

“Pretty much, with a few precogs and clairvoyants mixed in for good measure. The way I see it, Cauldron probably thinks that if they can gather a bunch of us into the same place, they’ll be able to play twenty questions with an omniscient.”

“Cauldron?”

“That’s whose running this thing. A secret organization that sells powers in a bottle, though I suppose the whole secret thing is out at this point. They’ve been funding parahuman organizations across the globe for years. And to be perfectly honest, they employ about half the people in this room, either directly or indirectly, myself included.”

“Huh. Do you think...” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “Do you think they’re the good guys?”

“Eh, that’s kind of a hard question to answer. Do I think they have good intentions? Yes. Do I think they’re good people? No.”

“What do you mean? They have to be one or the other, right?”

“The world’s not black and white like that, Princess.” she replied, “Sometimes, you have to do the wrong things for the right reasons.”

I mulled those words over in my head. I imagined there was some truth to it, but was this all really okay? Was whatever they were doing worth breaking out a dangerous supervillain? My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden hush that swept over the room. Everyone had stopped talking and had turned their attention towards Doctor Mother. She was standing in front of the crowd, Alexandria and Eidolon to the left of her, the black suited woman to her right.

“Hello everyone.” she announced to the room, “I would like to thank you all for being here today. You collectively represent the greatest minds our planet has to offer, and it is only fitting that through our combined efforts we shall save not only this Earth, but every other Earth in the multiverse. I wish to particularly express my gratitude to our friends in the CUI for contributing Two, One, and especially Null; without whom this project could not become a realty. Now, for those of you not already aware, the goal of this project is to combine the abilities of the world’s Thinkers to identify and solve the greatest issues facing humanity. Upon indirect contact with Null, your powers will be split up and shared amongst the group, allowing each and every one of you to access the Thinker abilities of every other cape in this room. We believe that by combining certain abilities, we’ll be able to overcome the inherent limitations of individual powers, opening up applications not previously accessible. Now, before we begin, does anyone have any questions or concerns?”

No one said a word. The man with the knives raised his hand, only for the blonde man to reach over and lower it.

“Very well then. Let us commence Project Think Tank.”

At her words, three Asian capes locked arms and held their hands out to the crowd. Everyone excluding Doctor Mother and Teacher started gathering together, joining hands or locking arms. They began to form three ellipsoid loops all connected at a common point like a triquetra. I took Tattletale’s hand as well as the hand of the young girl standing next to me. When the chain was complete, the three capes in the center took a deep breath and closed their eyes. At first, nothing happened; then I felt it. It was like a wave, running through each and every cape and circling back to the source. I could feel my powers being drained away, only to be replaced by... Everything. It was like a cloth being lifted from my eyes. I was suddenly aware of everything, from the atoms that made up my body to the orbit of the planets around the sun. I was aware of the people around me, their thoughts, their emotions, the long chains of events which led them to be here. Aware of their panic, as their brains were assaulted with more information than they knew what to do with.  I knew that feeling well. It was the feeling I had when I first got powers. The difference between then and now was that I had learned how to handle it. They all had my abilities, but they didn’t have the experience that went with them. 

All around me, people were gasping, crying out. Tattletale had fallen to her knees, head in her hands. Looking at her, I could see the strain of her power, the intense pain of the mental overload. I wished there was something I could do to help her. Then I saw it, the solution to her problem, laid out in front of me in a series of steps. This was the woman in black’s power, I realized. I reached out to Tattletale, and took her hand again. Following the instructions in my head, I used the power of One, the brainwashing thinker. I bid her to ignore the white noise, to block out the boundless data assaulting her brain. To instead, focus on me. My presence. My hand in hers. With her mind cleared, I had her use One’s power on me, and in an instant the barriers between our minds were broken. It was a strange kind of disassociation. In an instant, I was no longer a single person; but rather one half of a working system. All of my knowledge, thoughts, and experiences were laid bare for her to see and use, just as hers were for me. As the division between me and her dissolved, so did the burden of excess information. I could feel her pain and confusion slowly fade away as she acclimated to my thought processes.

Satisfied, I turned to the girl on my right. Her name was Dinah Alcott. She was a precog. A recent trigger like me. She was also suffering from the same side effects as Tattletale. I reached out to her and performed the same process as before; freeing her from the weight of information. We looked out before us, seeing all the other Thinkers struggling with their newfound insight. We didn’t even need to use the woman in black’s power to know what to do next. Tattletale and Dinah reached out to the people next to them and repeated the process. Those people then did the same to those next to them, and so on. One by one, we felt each new person being added, their knowledge and skills mixing in with our own. The links reached into the center, taking in Null, One, and Two, before spreading to the other loops. Soon the entire group was connected, a single machine consisting of numerous sentient parts.

 

Doctor Mother looked upon us with satisfaction. 

“It seems we have a success.” she said. “The group appears to have acquired Miss Hebert’s ability to administrate information.”

“That’s all well and good,” replied Teacher, “but how can you be sure they’ll have the information we’re looking for?”

“Only one way to find out.” She stepped forward, “Think Tank. Are you functioning as intended?”

We looked at her. As we did so, info came flooding in. Each person took in different kinds of data, processing it and bouncing it around to the others in the group. We knew what she meant by functioning. What she intended to do with our knowledge. Having seeing the consequences of our actions play out, we deigned to answer with a simple nod.

“Then tell me, Think Tank. Is there a way to kill Scion?”

“ **There is now!** ” We spoke together, our voices booming out and reverberating off the walls. 

A portal opened up, revealing the golden man himself. No, not a man. An avatar; for a much greater and terrifying entity. Scion was engaged in rescuing a kitten from a massive tree, when he noticed the portal. Struck by curiosity, he dropped the kitten and floated over to gaze at us. We met his gaze, closing the portal as he hovered into the room. Then, we spoke. Each and every one of us. The languages and accents may have been different, but the message was the same. A look of despair formed on Scion’s perfect face. He fell to the floor, head clutched in his hands. He wailed in fury and horror, the building shaking in response. His skin began to crack. We opened a portal beneath him, banishing him to a distant lifeless Earth. He went without resistance, golden light streaming out of the rapidly forming cracks in his skin. The portal closed just in time to block a flash of blinding light. The next few seconds passed in total silence, when we felt it. A golden wave passing through time and space, evidence of an explosion so large it could be felt universes away.

“ **Scion is dead.** ” we spoke at last, “ **We have killed him.** ”

“So it’s finally over.” said Doctor Mother pensively, “To think, this is all it took.”

“To be fair,” said Teacher, “Achieving cooperation at this magnitude is no small feat. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about humanity, it is their penchant for ignoring the big picture in favor of their own petty interests. I say this from personal experience.”

“Perhaps you are right, but if petty squabbling is our prerogative, then at least we now have all the time in the world to do it.” She turned her attention back to us. “That was an extraordinary first trial, Think Tank. You can separate for now. We’ll continue this project at a later date, after we deal with the fallout.”

We looked at her as she said this. We could see her past, present, and all her potential futures. We could peer into her heart and soul. We knew what she had done to make it this far, and what she was still prepared to do. Most importantly, we knew that if she managed to separated us, there would be a 0.00% chance we’d ever be put back together. All of our knowledge, all of our power, would be lost to time. Together, we could put an end to Endbringers; supervillains; war, famine, pestilence, and pollution. And she would throw that all away out of fear and ignorance. We couldn't allow that. I could not allow that. I remembered what Tattletale had told me, what felt like an eternity ago. Sometimes, you have to do the wrong things for the right reasons. This was one of those times. A ball of lightning appeared above our heads and struck Doctor Mother, killing her instantly. The lightening arced over to Teacher, bestowing on him the same fate. With that we were free. Free to save the world. To make it a better place. We could see the future, observe how it flowed and twisted, how each decision made it branch off into an infinitum of possibility. Scion was dead, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t take his place.


End file.
